Accuracy

Confidence

Speed

Determine your findings faster and read more cases per day

Knowledge

Become your practice’s expert across a wide variety of cases. Learn how to speak your referrer's language

Ankle MRI — Course Overview

People take their ankles for granted, and it shows in the frequency and mechanism of injuries to this joint. Whether it’s a game-time injury featuring an athlete or a grocery store parking lot accident involving your elderly neighbor, reading an ankle MRI entails participation in decisions about a patient’s mobility and therefore their quality of life. Some patients can’t wait to bear weight again ASAP (along with their parents/coaches/spouses), others have numerous health issues and experience pain with flexion or extension, inversion or eversion.

There’s a lot to consider in this hinge joint and its associated tunnels and attachments – fractures/dislocations usually come with associated ligamentous and tendinous disruption. If you aren’t lucky enough to get a detailed or accurate report of the mechanism of injury, you may be using corollary clues to piece together your evaluation. Which damage is acute and which is chronic? How stable is the ankle? Is nerve injury a factor? Don’t get us started on bone and soft tissue masses. In addition to discerning orthopedic surgeons, you may also field referrals from busy podiatrists who know their field thoroughly and expect the same from their imagers.

The ankle need not be your - “ahem” - Achilles heel. Take a spin through our Ankle MRI Mastery Series (anatomy, protocols & sequences, extensive case review) and sharpen your skills proactively, or consult as-needed for tricky cases to buff up your awareness of Lisfranc, syndesmotic, coalition, or Charcot appearances. You might be called upon to vary a protocol, evaluate multiple previous injuries, or discuss accessory muscles, ossicles or bones. All of these topics and more are covered in our Mastery series, supplemented by our Professional, Case Review and Advanced Orthopaedic and Joint Series. If they’re anything like ours, your referrers may be pretty knowledgeable about what they can see, and they will expect you to be even more so. Don’t sprain your brain - rise to the challenge, demonstrate your grading prowess and establish yourself as a go-to reader in this musculoskeletal field where the volume of patients can be as large as the injury variation is wide.